Mr. Speaker, after having listened to my hon. colleague from the Reform Party, I think it would be appropriate at this time to put some Reform facts about military vision on the record.
The Reform Party has consistently called for major cuts to defence spending. In 1993 its zero in three plan would have cut $1.8 billion from the defence department's budget. In 1994 Reform wanted an additional $1 billion cut from national defence on top of the 15% across the board cuts it was demanding from all departments. The Reform Party's taxpayer budget released in 1995 also called for $1 billion to be slashed from the national defence budget.
I know the vision Reform espoused called for “professional, well equipped and sufficiently strong armed forces”. The Reform Party claims that it wants this.
In last year's election platform, I looked for what the Reform Party's plans were to improve for instance national defence or international security. In its fresh start election platform campaign the only time that the term national defence was mentioned was when it was listed as one of the areas of government that the Reform Party would target with cuts and spending reductions.
Reform cannot have it both ways. It talks only cuts and it does not talk about what it would do. It is a good thing for the defence department in this country that the hon. member is not in government and the responsible side of this House knows how to make cuts but also manage a progression into the future. This government does take care of international security and does move forward to listen to our armed forces and work toward a path that will help them do their jobs professionally as well as help their families.
I ask the member where was his vision? Where was his party's vision? Where was his leader's vision on defence?